The Rings of Salammis

The Tower - Part 4

     Thomas put the last sheet of paper down with a sigh of disappointment. Useless! Nothing but myths and legends, most of which had doubtless been invented by playwrights and storytellers during the intervening centuries. But then, what else had he expected? The Gem Lords had lived centuries before the founding of the University, which was itself two thousand years before his present place in time. What reliable information had he really expected to survive such an immense span of time? And yet, even in myths and legends, might there not be a tiny grain of residual truth?

     He rubbed his tired eyes and picked up the first bundle of papers again. Matthew, Seskip and the Ship of Space were forgotten. In his concentration, he had lost all track of the passage of time.

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     "What's keeping him?" grumbled Matthew impatiently.
     He was hopeless at judging the passage of time but the two suns had moved some distance across the sky while they'd been waiting and twice they'd heard the ringing of bells and watched crowds of white robed apprentices walking in laughing clumps from one building to another. Surely the time they'd given Tom had elapsed by now. He knew what had happened, of course. That damned wizard had gotten his nose in a book and had forgotten all about them. He cursed out loud, making the two younger men shuffle their feet nervously. He'd known this would happen!

     He wanted to go in there and drag Thomas out by the scruff of his neck, but that proctor in the main entrance had stopped them once and would doubtless do something unpleasant to him if he caught him trying to sneak back in. Thomas had mentioned a side door though...

     He came to a decision. "Wait here," he told the two younger men, and left before they could raise a protest, striding purposefully back towards the divination building. If he acted as though he owned the place, a well tried formula that worked surprisingly often, and if he was lucky enough to avoid meeting a proctor...

     He found the door Thomas must have meant, but he faltered uncertainly when he saw a small crowd of apprentices gathered in front of it. Pretty girls. Mostly human but with a small, slender, golden haired shae girl among them. They were giggling the way girls do when talking about boys, and the wide eyed shae seemed shocked to the bone by what she was hearing, while at the same time too fascinated to protest or leave.

     Matthew hesitated in indecision and he almost turned back to look for another way in. They're just girls, he told himself, though. Just a bunch of silly girls. They won't raise the alarm. They'll just assume he had legitimate business there. They'll give way before someone who looks like he knows where he's going. He hoped.

     The girls paid him little attention at first, but stared in surprise when it became apparent that he intended to pass through the door behind them. Matthew tried his best to ignore them, his heart pounding in his chest. Do they know any spells yet? he wondered nervously. Even if they didn't, they might run off to find a proctor. Don't think about that, just act as if you own the place. He breathed a sigh of relief as they parted to make way for him, and he felt their eyes on the back of his head as he left them behind, but then he was through the door and out of sight. So long as no proctors happened along in the next few minutes, they would go back to their conversation and forget all about him.

     He paused in the hallway for a few moments to let his heart settle down, then looked around. Two long corridors stretched away from him, one leading straight ahead, the other off to the right, and to his left were two staircases. One going up, the other down. Thomas had said that the archives would be in the basement, so he began to descend the stairs, his chest puffed out and his chin lifted high, trying to give an impression of confidence and authority. I belong here. I have business here. Better leave me alone to get on with it if you know what's good for you.